Episode 5: Transcript

@macgenie:00:00:00 Hey it’s Micro Monday again, the microcast where we get to know members of the Micro.blog community. I’m Jean MacDonald, Community Manager at Micro.blog. And I’m really pleased to welcome Kitt Hodsden, also known as @kitt, K-I-T-T. on Micro.blog. Hey Kitt, how are you doing?

@kitt:00:00:20 Hi Jean. I’m fantastic. I’m so excited.

@macgenie:00:00:23 Me too. This is so exciting. I’m loving this podcast and talking to so many interesting people like yourself. In fact, why don’t you tell our listeners a little bit about yourself?

@kitt:00:00:36 Jean, I find introductions are incredibly fascinating because they always tell an audience what a person finds most important about themselves. Like when you write a new bio on Micro.blog, it’s what do you want to include in order to find people to connect with. Well, all right, here goes. I’m a software developer. I live in Portland, Oregon. Not many people know that.

@macgenie:00:00:56 I did not know that!

@kitt:00:00:58 I used to work at Apple, I worked at Twitter and I worked at Shopify. I used to live down in the San Francisco South Bay and I cofounded Hacker Dojo which is a coworking creative space down there. I’m an avid reader. I really like notebooks and I love playing ultimate frisbee. How’s that?

@macgenie:00:01:16 That’s awesome. That’s really good. A well-rounded bio. So how did you hear about Micro.blog?

@kitt:00:01:24 I really wish I could recall where I heard about Micro.blog.

@macgenie:00:01:32 It’s not important if you can’t remember.

@kitt:00:01:32 The funny thing to me is that I didn’t hear about it when it was on Kickstarter, because I’m a huge Kickstarter fan. Like I’ve backed over 700 projects on Kickstarter. So for me not to have heard about it on Kickstarter is really really weird. But when I did hear about it last June, I signed up for the mailing list and as soon as the invites went out in November, I was like, “Sign me up!”

@macgenie:00:01:54 Well I’m glad that you did find it and signed up with us because I just love having you as a member of the Micro.blog community…

@kitt:00:02:05 Blushing…

@macgenie:00:02:06 …and now I get to talk to you in person.

@kitt:00:02:10 Still blushing…

@macgenie:00:02:14 Did you have a blog before Micro.blog?

@kitt:00:02:16 I did. I have had my personal blog, Nags of a Similar Ilk, for about 14 years, and about two weeks ago, maybe three weeks ago, I decided to stop posting to it. I recently lost a server there, a lot of the images and a bunch of the content on it, and I figured well, that seems like a good time to stop. I’m really excited about Micro.blog and blogging there, so I thought this is a good time to stop. We’ll see if it sticks.

@macgenie:00:02:50 So what are you doing with your microblog that you started through Micro.blog?

@kitt:00:02:57 A couple of years ago, I stopped using Twitter aggressively. I was looking for another social network to become involved in. I really like the images of Instagram but I’m so not a fan of Facebook and I never have been and so I’ve been reluctant to go all in on Instagram. I feel that Micro.blog fills the need for community for me in a way that early Twitter did, and the way that I really wanted Instagram to do when I had stopped using Twitter so much. So I’m using Micro.blog as a place to, on a personal level, jot down thoughts and post pictures and tell stories about things going on in my life. But more important to me is to be able to reach out to other people and see how they’re doing and where I can help. If we’re all lucky in the end of this, we build a community within Micro.blog that’s this welcoming part of the Internet that spills over into the real world. So yeah I’m using my good ol’ blog as a way to meet people and find people interesting.

@macgenie:00:04:01 Yeah I hear you. I’ve definitely been using it that way as well and I used to be all in on Twitter. When I first joined, I just thought it was the neatest thing and I made a lot of friends, right?

@kitt:00:04:19 Oh yeah. There are so many people like my boyfriend. I met him through Twitter.

@macgenie:00:04:25 Really?

@kitt:00:04:27 Twitter is an amazing place. And then it wasn’t.

@macgenie:00:04:32 Yeah it’s a shame because I did love it so, I have to admit. And then, as you said, until it wasn’t. And it’s been a while since I’ve been really excited about Twitter. Definitely when I saw that Manton was going public with this project that I knew that he was working on, I was excited about that, and that there was an opportunity to work with him, that was particularly exciting to me as well, because I’ve known him for a while in the developer community. I like his work and he’s a good person to work with, as you can imagine.

@kitt:00:05:14 I can imagine. I am looking forward to when he can breathe for a moment and decide how the rest of us can help with the site and the network and all that stuff.

@macgenie:00:05:22 So I think having a community, and as you say, the notion that we would spill over into the Internet in general and be a force for acceptance and tolerance, and good manners.

@kitt:00:05:40 Communities define themselves, so I feel that as long as we’re all in this together and we all work towards having something that is a welcoming community, we’ll get there.

@macgenie:00:05:50 You’re pretty much answering at least one answer to the last question which is: What do you like Micro.blog ?

@kitt:00:05:56 Oh definitely the community. I really really love how not only we’re establishing a new community but how other communities are re-establishing themselves on Micro.blog. I see it frequently with the “Oh good to see you here too” posts. I just love that because they’re different and they’re growing. And all of the interest that people have. Like I’m excited about paper and notebooks, but I would never have tried a fountain pen without hearing about all of the conversations happening on Micro.blog. Like hedgehogs and guinea pigs are totally new to me. I had no experience on these and then suddenly there’s all these pictures I’m like “Wait a second. Those are adorable.

@macgenie:00:06:39 Yes, they are officially the world’s cutest little pet I think. Guinea Pigs. Anyway I can’t really speak to hedgehogs. I’ve only seen them a couple of times and I’ve seen videos of them but I haven’t actually had one. But I do like guinea pigs. A lot, as you have noticed!

@kitt:00:07:00 Are the difficult to take care of?

@macgenie:00:07:04 No, they’re pretty easy to keep but they aren’t simple. There’s a definite misunderstanding, I think, in the world at large, that guinea pigs can be “starter pets” because they’re little. But they have very specific needs for diet and vitamins, and a certain size cag, and you how you hold them is important. They don’t have those treadmills like hamsters have, because their bodies don’t do that. They’re like bricks with little legs and so they’re not really very flexible. You can’t just hold them up in mid air and expect that not to get injured. So guess it’s easier maybe than taking care of a cat or dog because somebody can come in and feed your guinea pigs while you’re away. You’re supposed to have two at least two. One guinea pig is a little sad because they’re very social animals. So if you have two guinea pigs and you go away, I think they consider it a vacation for them. I always felt bad in the beginning I thought, “Oh I’m leaving the guinea pigs on their own for two days,” and then eventually I realized: they jump every time I come into the room. They’re always on alert for predators. And if they had two days with nobody walking around their cage, they’d probably enjoy that.

@kitt:00:08:46 The things I did not know. Yay, Micro.blog!

@macgenie:00:08:52 It will not be a microcast if you get me going on guinea pigs. I should stop. But I will say that’s my next mini micro blog project, to just start putting the guinea pigs into their own feed.

@kitt:00:09:09 I’m resisting having a million microblog.

@macgenie:00:09:12 It’s hard.

@kitt:00:09:14 Oh, it is hard.

@macgenie:00:09:15 So I will say that what I really like about Micro.blog is a chance to meet new people like you. I’m really glad you could come on to the microcast and tell us a little bit about you and about what you’re doing on Micro.blog. I’m sure that a lot of folks will be happy to have the chance to get to know you a little better.

@kitt:00:09:37 Thanks for having me. I’m excited.

@macgenie:00:09:39 Thanks to everybody for listening. We’ll talk to you next week.